


Never forget the fallen

by cozmopolitan



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Drabble, Family Member Death, Omnic Crisis, Revenge, backstory headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cozmopolitan/pseuds/cozmopolitan
Summary: Zarya doesn't ever talk about why she distrusts Omnics, but she certainly knows why she does.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a quick drabble outlining why I think Zarya hates Omnics. of course, this is just my headcanon, but I like to think that this is what happened ;^)

Aleksandra Zaryanova was eighteen at the time her entire family had been taken away from her. Only just becoming an adult in the previous months before, there was something so ironic about the fact that her first steps into adulthood were spent grieving over the loss of those who raised her from birth.

She finally felt like she had gotten a grasp on her life, and then it slipped away from her before she could even bask in her success. Or rather, what could have been success.

Her pain pushed her forwards, but the first few years without her family was something she couldn't let those machines get away with. Those Omnics. Those damned machines that humanity had willingly brought into the world, not even considering the consequences of such a task. A robot that could think for itself? What were they thinking?

The Omnics only brought destruction and terror. They were evil. They had no place in society, let alone the rights of a human being.

Her childhood home was surrounded by the wreckage of post-war artifacts, the sight of the defeated hulls of Omnic bodies a common one. There was an effort to clean up after the war, but of course, rebuilding what was left of society was more important. They would lay completely still, collecting snow atop their metal bodies, looking as if they could come to life at any moment. They scared her. Their red eyes that once were aglow with the thought of death. The weapons affixed to their arms, the sheer horror of what they had done to the people of Russia still fresh in everyone's mind. She was told to leave them alone, to not touch them, else she might get hurt. She already knew that.

Her people were suffering after a brutal onslaught of what felt like endless machines, each manufactured by an omnium plant that could think for itself. The Russian government aimed to destroy the omnium plant that had been producing most of Russia's Omnics, but the risk was too high. At the peak of the First Omnic Crisis, trying to get humans into a building surrounded by robots with a directive to kill humans was not an easy task. There were multiple efforts to try and deactivate the production process, but the attempt to do so was soon discouraged after an omnium plant in the Austrailian outback had one of its nuclear reactors explode as humans desperately tried to deactivate it.

In desperation, humanity made mistakes. It was a given. 

That was what made machines so terrifying, after all. Machines could not make errors. This meant that everything they did was completely intentional. They knew exactly what they were doing, Aleksandra thought.

Their lives were destroyed by the uprising that was thought to have had no driving force behind it. No one knew why they rebelled. Texts from just decades before suggested that humanity feared sentient machines. Perhaps the future should have listened.

Since when could a machine understand something as complex as human emotions? They were programmed to think that way. It wasn't that they legitimately felt any sort of empathy for humanity, and that was why they felt no remorse.

At least, that's what Aleksandra believed. At the young age of eight, she swore she would get her revenge, even if she was far too young to understand such adult concepts.

Yet her family told her to not think of such things. They told her she needed to look ahead to the future. Only the past would weigh her down. But what if she could use to her advantage? What if the past was a metaphorical weight on her shoulders that only got heavier the less she thought about it? As such, Aleksandra would learn to carry that weight. She would strengthen herself for the future using what she could take from her past experiences. She would be strong for those who could not bear such a weight. 

Even the day that the Omnics had stopped their assault, the day that the sun decided to rise once again, Aleksandra knew they would return one day. It was a gut feeling. Their thirst for destruction wasn’t sated quite yet. Even if those around here were rebuilding what was left, she felt nervous. This feeling never went away, either.

Her late childhood and teenage years were spent training. For what, she didn't know. But she felt like had to do it. She had to get stronger and fight for her family. Her country. Everything she stood for. She hoped to join the Russian army one day, but she didn't have the confidence to tell her parents. Instead, she tried to focus on what made her happy.

Her father had remarked at how strong she was when helping around the farm that her family owned. What he didn’t know is that she had been training ever since the day the Omnics had ceased their attack.

She spent her time after school lifting whatever she could find for practice. Most of the time, she would lift heavy sacks of potatoes, only increasing the weight after she could lift them with ease. She would often replicate the exercises she had seen on the fitness channel on television, doing a variety of exercises multiple times daily.

Her outlook on life had changed after doing this for many years. The first attack of the Omnics had been one of the worst days of her life, but she used her anger and hatred of the Omnics to push her forwards. Now on feats she would have never thought possible.

She was not an angry teenager, nor was she a negative one. Her teenage years were spent socializing with her schoolmates, although she would often get strange looks from her peers due to her burly appearance. She had cut her blond hair short recently. She hated the feeling of wet, sweaty hair sticking to the back of her neck, and putting her hair back was a bit of a chore. Having short hair solved all her problems.

She stayed frustrated through at her own country during these years as well. They seemed to do nothing about the threat of Omnics unless it was anywhere near the southern parts of Russia. Being in the north had its downsides. The omnium plant went untouched for many years, as it was assumed to be completely dormant once it broke down during the first Omnic Crisis. Oh, how wrong they were.

Growing up, she continued to stay independent, but refused to stay distant from her family. Most of her chores now revolved around anything that required heavy lifting. She was becoming a fully-grown independent woman, and her parents could see that in her. She was doing quite well in school, especially in physical education. Her dad suggested that she could be a weightlifter. Her mom only laughed at the thought. 

During physical education class one weekday, Aleksandra was pulled out of the class (to her own dismay) to speak with some supposedly important people. She was put before two professional looking men who had said they were impressed by how well she was doing in her physical education classes, remarking at her strength. She was flattered, but confused. Why did she need to be pulled out of her favourite class to be complimented?

It wasn't long before they had asked her if she was interested in joining an athletics program to further her endeavors, explaining that she would be effectively removed from regular school and would begin training immediately.

Obviously, she had to accept. It didn't take long before the tall blonde's smile stretched ear to ear, immediately saying that she was honoured to have such a great opportunity put before.

Perhaps she could now put her past to rest. Her training got her somewhere. 

Now her entire life revolved around training. Weight lifting. Body building. She was one of the best female weightlifters in her age group, and ended up rising to the top of her class by the time she was seventeen. Everyone knew her as "Zarya", rather than her first name. She liked the nickname, thinking it suited her quite nicely.

As soon as she had turned eighteen, she was eligible to enter the world championships. It was a daunting task, but she did whatever she could to win. The glory and fame would be all too worth it.

And then something happened. Hell didn't break loose, but rather slipped through the cracks slowly over time. It took a long time for her to realize truly what had happened.

A news channel had announced another series of Omnic attacks on some distant Siberian villages. They hadn’t named the exact villages, but she hoped desperately that it wasn’t hers. She worried immensely for the coming days, unable to sleep, tossing and turning at the thought of her family. She tried to call her home phone number multiple times, but to no avail. No one had answered, her efforts only met with the sound of a humming dial tone. 

It was not long until the news of what happened had hit her like a punch to the chest. It was announced that the worst of the attacks were on her home town, where officials were unsure of the exact death toll. Something about there being hundreds dead, perhaps more. News footage showed fire. A lot of fire. A lot of destruction, explosions heard in the distance, bullets cracking cleanly through the cold air.

Taking in the thought of her family being dead, Aleksandra broke down into tears for the first time in what felt like ten years. She sobbed heavily, the other athletes in the room wondering why she was crying. They tried to comfort her, but it only made her angry. She wanted to be alone.

There was no way that her family survived. She desperately tried to call them again, clinging to the idea of them being on the other end of the line.  _"Oh, Aleksandra! How is your training going? Are you in good health?",_  her mother would have asked. Yet when she called out for her, she never replied.  _"I hope you'll be strong enough to lift a cow one day!_ _"_ , her father would have joked, but there was no laughter. Just a dead line and a silence that made her feel completely empty inside. 

After crying initially, she couldn't bring any more tears to her eyes. Her tear ducts were frozen solid, and all she could do was stare blankly at the wall before her. Yet she was deep in thought, trying to think of something to do. She couldn't just leave herself in such a state. She had to do something, clinging to the possibility of her family being alive. 

She had eventually approached her coach, asking her about leaving the training centre to visit her hometown.

“But Aleksandra, the world championships are soon, if you leave now you’ll be disqualified,” her coach had told her.

Aleksandra felt the urge to punch her. Was she that dense that she couldn’t understand the absolute gravity of such a situation?

Her family might be dead. Her friends might be dead. Much like ten years ago, her stability in her life was taken from her. This time, however, it was much worse.

It felt like her coach was deaf. She wasn’t listening to her, no matter how much she pleaded. The championship placement matches were tomorrow. Aleksandra Zaryanova was destined to be the star of the show. She would make Russia proud.

It wasn’t until Aleksandra began to scream in her face that she had worked up the courage to drop everything right there, grabbing a bag of her belongings and storming out of the training centre.

She didn’t ever want to look back. Her strength was no longer used for fame and fortunes. She would now use it to fight. Doing nothing would be the worst possible idea at this point.

The train ride back to her village felt like days of waiting, even years. Time had gone so slowly. Aleksandra could only stare aimlessly out the window, trees and snow flying past her face as the train made its way across the land. She hoped that something remained in the village when she returned. Someone, even. Did anyone survive?

The train had refused to stop at her village due to the recent destruction, so she was forced to get off at an earlier stop and trudge through the snow, pushing herself forwards until she would be forced to face the destruction. Smoke hung high in the air, the black of it depressing and worrying. 

Yet she tried to stay positive. Maybe her family was hiding? 

Tank tracks and the footsteps of mechs now lay before her, indicating that the army had already been here to deal with the Omnic threat. Yes, everything would be fine. The army killed all the Omnics. There's nothing to worry about.

As she followed the tracks to her village, the smoke only became thicker. Something was on fire in the distance. 

Army uniforms paced around the village, searching under rubble and destroyed buildings for any signs of life. One of the men approached her, stopping her in her tracks, asking why she was here and what she was doing.

"My family," she replied, and the man could only look at her in utter horror, unable to find the right words.

It was alright, though. By that point, Aleksandra had realized that the Omnics had lay waste to her village. Not a single building remained standing, the area before her that she once knew as home being nothing but piles and piles of dirt, concrete, and dead Omnics. This was nothing like home. She felt like she was dreaming.

Mindlessly, she walked towards the home where she had once lived, the army not even trying to stop her from advancing into what was very recently a war zone.

She struggled to find her home. It wasn't there, not a single structure left behind. The farmhouse, the barn, the hen house. Nothing remained except the fence that surrounded the fields. That was her only way of identifying what used to be her home.

She still couldn't accept what was going on. She threw her bag to the ground, standing still, her breaths becoming shuddered and raspy. She fell to her knees and began to scream and wail, eyes pinned wide open. They wouldn't shut. She couldn't control her body. It was moving for her.

She stomped over to the pile that once was her home, throwing pieces of debris everywhere in a fit of rage. She punched through some of the remaining wood of the structure, kicking her foot through whatever drywall remained. 

Exhausted, she fell to her knees once again, her hair hanging in wet strings over her eyes. She couldn't cry. All she felt was anger. Resentment. Hatred. Those  _machines_. Those ruthless killers.

What the hell was wrong with the world?

Taking several deep breaths, heart feeling like it was pounding out of her chest, Aleksandra noticed something on the ground next to her - the only thing that survived the attack. Picking the object up, she gently wiped the snow off of it.

A picture of her and her parents, smiling happily, the frame's glass shattered. A note written on the bottom, which she recognized as her father's writing: _The proudest parents in the world!_

Only then did the tears fall, and she remained silent, her sobs muffled by her gloves.

From that day forward, Aleksandra Zaryanova would harvest her pain to keep her going forwards, even if it killed her inside.

Never would she trust an Omnic again.


End file.
